So long Exchange & Mart

Exchange & Mart had a very small print circulation with barely 20,000 and falling, but its closure in print and move to online only publication is a story that is set to be repeated over and over this year. Quite how much is anyone's guess.

With its position as a classified title the closure of Exchange & Mart in print is perhaps less of a surprise than many similar closures. The decline of the classified ad market that hit specialist titles like Exchange & Mart, as well as regional and national newspapers alike. It has spared no one and is only going to get worse. Eighty jobs are under threat at the auto classified title which adds to the hundreds already lost and under threat in the regional press within the last few months at titles like the Northern Echo where staff are considering strike action as they are elsewhere at titles like the Yorkshire Post.

The problem with some of these closures and cuts is that some like Exchange & Mart appear to be the only option. There is very little future in the print classified market. Regional newspapers generally, however, appear in some places to be put to the sword, which is probably why one independent local newspaper group, the Wigan Courier, has called online advertising a “digital fad” that will pass and there is “still no substitute” for a colourful local newspaper ad. More likely it is just a cheeky grab for publicity.

Managing director Mark Ashley told Press Gazette: “The Courier is bucking the current trend for regional newspapers, which has seen a year of contraction, circulation losses, job cuts and cutbacks.

“We believe that readers and advertisers want a mass distribution, colourful, effective newspaper that focuses on all the good things about our local Wigan community, and that the current obsession with internet advertising and Facebook will gradually go the way of all the digital fads over the last few years."

That said the signs of change in magazine and newspaper publishing are evident in all markets. We've all seen it. At the end of last year Ziff Davis Media closed the print edition of its once flagship title, PCMag, after 26 years and will publish the magazine online only.

That followed on a larger scale the news that the Christian Science Monitor was to close down and going online only and CosmoGirl while the Sporting News and US News & World Report cut their print frequency and put more focus on the web.

In the B2B sector, there are a number of examples, but close to hand at Haymarket, which owns Brand Republic, Marketing Direct and Promotions & Incentives have gone online only. They will not be the last in the B2B sector either, which has also been hit hard by the decline of the ad market.

And the truth as we have already witnessed is that online is no safe haven. The truth that has revealed itself is that the expected hand in hand growth of revenues and traffic has not happened. Traffic for many sites big and small has soared, but the revenue is not growing at anything like the same rate.

The web posted annual growth of 29.5% in 2007 and 20% in 2008 digital ad spend in 2009 is expected just 2.1%, according to Enders Analysis forecasts.

This is why this week you have had ITV writing down the value of Friends Reunited, concluding that the site is worth less than the £175m it bought it for.

ITV like a lot of media companies look unlikely to hit online revenue targets the projections for which were based on much higher growth rates than we are now living with.

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Skanky blogger to get model pay back

Blogging comes with a price as one blogger could be about to find out as a former Vogue cover girl, Liskula Cohen, threatens to sue Google to uncover the identity of a blogger who labelled her a "skank" and an "old hag".

Cohen who as far as I can tell looks, well, like a tall blonde attractive model wants Google to hand over details of the Blogger account set up in July 2008 used by "Skanks in NYC", which as the name says is about "skanks" in New York.

He has this to say about Cohen who has modelled for Giorgio Armani and Versace.

"Ok so there are so many nasty bithces [sic] in the NYC scene, so now we can write about them. I would have to say that the first place award for "Skankiest in NYC" would have to go to Liskula Gentile Cohen. How old is this skank? 40 something? She's a psychotic, lying, whoring, still going to clubs at her age, skank. Yeah she may have been hot 10 years ago, but is it really attractive to watch this old hag straddle dudes in a nightclub or lounge? Desperation seeps from her soul, if she even has one.

"Don't you guys think she should grow and an get on with her life? I mean really, 40 year old women (or in her case that look 40) shouldn't be out at night looking and acting like ho's. What kind of guy wants a skank *** like that?"

Clearly, Mister Skank didn't even Google poor Cohen who is only 36, but she has certainly Googled him and Google.

"It's petty, it's stupid and it's pathetic," Cohen said. "And when I do find out who did this, at least I'll know who my enemies are. I'm tall, I'm blond, I've been modelling for many years, and people get jealous," she said. "If I had to deal with everyone who is jealous, I wouldn't have time to do anything else."

Cohen has filed a defamation suit in Manhattan Supreme Court that seeks a court order to compel Google to hand over details, but there is no guarantee that Google will be able to tell who the blogger is.

As we all know it is very easy to set up a blog with a fake email address and after that there is next to no way to trace the writer. In the case 'Skanks NYC' it could be a little easier as he appears to have posted pictures of himself in various poses simulating sex under the headline: "Im Skanky and I know and I really like to show it.......I'm skanky and I know it clap your hands!!!!!!"

Cohen's lawyer Steven Wagner thinks they have a case. "We think we have a case. This is libellous, it's defamatory and you shouldn't just get away with this."

Happily not everyone agrees and posters on the blog including liveandlove have sprung to the model's defence.

"Are you one of those little dumpy girls who hang off her every word?. Or do you wait three hours in line at a club, when she breezes right in? Tell me, are you easier to walk over or around?" liveandlove wrote.

Google declined to comment on Cohen's complaint.

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Twitter the book?

Twitter really arrived last year. The microblogging service was being sought by buyers, celebrities like Britney Spears were signing up and then there was the book. You missed the Twitter book?

'Twitter Means Business' was published at the end of last year by tech journalist Julio Ojeda-Zapata. He takes a look at the microblogging service and tells you why you should care about it. It has had loads of flattering praise heaped upon it.

So if you are still thinking "how does "Twitter fit into all of this social media stuff that me and my brand/agency/client are supposed to care about?" then you might want to have a look. You don't even have to buy the (whole) thing. The first chapter is available for free download.

The book looks at how companies are harnessing Twitter to engage customers and promote their products as well as monitoring what is being said about their brands on the service. It comes with plenty of examples of what companies like Comcast, H&R Block, Mars, Evernote, JetBlue, Whole Foods and Zappos are using it for.

Note sure if there is a section on celebs and other high profile figures using it, but their embrace of Twitter has garnered much publicity. Barack Obama famously used it throughout his Presidential election campaign, Britney is on board as are the likes of Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross - well he has time on his hands.

With 2009 looking likely to be a major success for Twitter, even more so than the past 12 months, which was more like the wider launchpad for the service, then you really ought to know what it is about and what the top tips on how to use the it and its related tools are.

It also has sections looking at what is maybe some of the most interesting stuff about Twitter, which is how it is being used for PR. Ask Pepsi. PRs at PepsiCo posted messages on Twitter after users began criticising an ads, which depicted a cartoon calorie committing suicide. Nice

Huw Gilbert, communications manager for PepsiCo International tweeted: "Huw from Pepsi here. We agree this creative is totally inappropriate; we apologise and please know it won't run again."

One member "tweeted" back: "Thank you . . . for having the guts to get on Twitter on behalf of Pepsi and give us an update on the suicide ad."

That's how you do it.

Of course another reason you know that Twitter has really arrived is that scammers are now targeting it as another way to steal parts of people's digital lives.

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One more gorrila(less) viral

The International Fund for Animal Welfare has created a Gorilla viral all of its own with 'Gorilla, missing in action".

There have been a number of Gorrila spoof ads (okay well there was the Wonderbra model drummer viral which people seemed to really like for some reason), but although this one from the IFAW is a bit after the fact it makes its point well enough courtesy of Cadbury's classic chocolate ad. The viral has gone online today to highlight the plight of the world's rapidly disappearing endangered species from tigers, elephants, whales, turtles to gorillas.

 

The 40 second pro-bono spot was created by Magnus Thorne and Paul Turner at Rapp London, and was directed by Harry Dwyer and produced by James Sorton through the production company 2am.

 

Where next for social media as adspend shrinks

Despite social media being the biggest buzz topic this year, 2009 is not going to be easy. Yet another study says the amount of advertising revenue these sites were expected to pull in is going to sink.

Emarketer says the social media phenomenon will continue to grow, but not the revenues being generated. It is almost a cause and effect scenario. People have been commenting all year that sites like Facebook and Twitter are exciting and offer new opportunities, but do not pull in the revenues.

EMarketer has revised its projections for US social network ad spending down for 2008 from $1.4bn to $1.2bn.

But its 2009 downward revision is much greater, from $1.8bn to $1.3bn - barely any increase on 2008.

The two factors that have caused this to happen are slower-than-expected revenue growth at MySpace (still the big daddy in the US) and the recession. eMarketer has revised its forecast for MySpace and Facebook down. It had previously predicted that MySpace would bring in $755m in US adspending in 2008, but it has cut that by a whopping 22.5% to $585m. It has opted for a similar large cut at Facebook saying it will bring in 20.8% less than thought - $210m instead of $265m.

It is really difficult to say what impact this will have on marketers. Experimentation in marketing can often be the first casualty when budgets are cut. Clearly this is even more correct when you have an area of the digital space such as social media that has yet to prove itself in a commercial sense.

That said eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson is warning marketers not to write off social networks completely.

"In a difficult economy it is usually easier to market to an existing customer than to acquire a new one. With a relatively small investment, companies can use social networks to cultivate relationships with customers who have already raised their hand and expressed interest in their brand or product."

The eMarketer report follows one last month by IDC (U.S. Consumer Online Attitudes Survey Results Part III), that was critical of marketers' efforts in social media (it called them "stillborn"). Harsh, but there are plenty of stillborn efforts out there that have simply been abandoned, such as blogs that were started but failed to get traction and communities that were launched but did not have any errr community?

In a way the problem is at both ends of the equation. Marketers are still not totally sure what they are doing or are going to do or how they are going to successfully work with these sites (or exploit the medium themselves) and social networking sites have yet to reach their destination in terms of defining themselves: what they are and what they offer.

Maybe it does come back to the debate about how you can monetize someone's chitchat and social life? And, ahem, then there is the fact that not enough people click on ads.

That was the message recently from Procter & Gamble's head of marketing, Ted McConnell, who said companies should not advertise on Facebook, saying social networks have no right to monetise their customer's conversations and that it is "arrogant" to monetise social networking platforms.

Well tell Facebook and MySpace about it - they have enormous amounts of advertising inventory but have had a hard time selling it.

In its report IDC said the way forward for social networking sites was to become more like portals, which suggests services like Facebook need to bolt on additional attractions.

Does that mean services like Twitter? Twitter spurned it once, but a deal could still be done.

At this rate Facebook could snap up what's left of Yahoo! and bolt its entire service on to a larger portal. There is also talk of Facebook launching some kind of TV channel. MySpace with its music offering is well on the way to doing something similar in owning that space.

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The IWF does a 180

After a day of fevered speculation the Internet Watch Foundation having gone off the deep end and banned a 30 year old art house album cover image has now backtracked and decided that "in light of the length of time the image has existed and its wide availability, the decision has been taken to remove this webpage from our list".
 
Did someone say knee-jerk reaction? Last week no one was really aware of the IWF and this week we know that it is not really fit for the purpose or at least its systems and procedures needs some serious looking at.

 
The correct course of action should have been for the complaint to be made public and then debated rather than jumping to an immediate ban and getting people worked up over issues of censorship.

Instead the IWF banned the image along with access to editing Wikipedia articles for many UK users and there was even talk of taking Amazon down for Christmas all because someone hit the really large button on the IWF site and reported the 1976 album 'Virgin Killer' from hairy German metalers the Scorpions, which contained the image of a naked young girl.

Clearly it is a serious business and the IWF deals with issues of illegal online child sexual abuse reports and action needs to be swift, but it also needs to be correct as well. It made a bad and very public call.

It even seems to be admitting it made something of an error in its statement: "Any further reported instances of this image which are hosted abroad, will not be added to the list. Any further reported instances of this image which are hosted in the UK will be assessed in line with IWF procedures.
 
"IWF’s overriding objective is to minimise the availability of indecent images of children on the internet, however, on this occasion our efforts have had the opposite effect. We regret the unintended consequences for Wikipedia and its users. Wikipedia have been informed of the outcome of this procedure and IWF Board’s subsequent decision."

The IWF should look to the Advertising Standards Authority for some advice on how to conduct itself. The ASA investigates ads, weighs it all up before making a considered judgement. I think that body has a great track record of making the right call. Look at some of today's rulings from that body such as the ad for the children's charity Barnado's featuring repeated scenes of violence. That ad escaped a ban by the advertising watchdog despite almost 500 complaints. Clearly a lot of people wanted to see that banned, but the ASA ruled in the advertiser's favour. It was the right decision and that's all in a days work for the ASA and the industry it serves.

The IWF has a potentially bigger remit and needs to be act and be run appropriately, which is something the industry it serves needs to look at. Hopefully it will learn something from this shambles and make a better call next time. 

The IWF, Wiki, German metal, pre-pubescent art and Amazon

I'm barely aware of the Internet Watch Foundation. I guess this applies to many people, but now with its banning of a page on Wikipedia and a potential ban on Amazon we've all heard of it.

Have you seen the image o the cover of the Scorpions' 1976 album 'Virgin Killer'? When I first looked at it, and before I knew what it was or where it was from, I thought wow that looks exactly like some 70s art house picture.

I didn't actually know it was from the 1970s and has been in the public domain for errr thirty plus years. The image is at the end of this post - so if you are easily offended stop right here.

It's been in books, libraries and on the internet for years until December 2008 when someone complained to the IWF, which then blocked the image and in the process stopped people accessing Wiki articles.

The IWF in some ludicrous power grab has also been talking about blocking Amazon from UK users as well as the online retailer sells the album.

I can't get hold of anyone at the IWF, but the Amazon story is being reported in various places. Maybe they are out looking for online copies of Lolita (that film poster on Wiki is a bit racy) after some helpful member of the public pointed out that you can access this book online.

I exaggerate. At least I think I do. We can debate this, but apparently not the IWF which although is a non-governmental EU funded-body (something the EU does that the Daily Mail can support? Can't be good) has massive power to affect 95% of UK internet users.

I'm not even sure who they are having looked at the IWF website. It describes itself as "the UK's internet 'hotline' for the public and IT professionals to report potentially illegal online content within our remit".

I'm not sure what its remit is either. It seems to be all pervading. It says it works in "partnership with the online industry, law enforcement, government, the education sector, charities, international partners and the public to minimise the availability of this content, specifically, child sexual abuse content hosted anywhere in the world and criminally obscene and incitement to racial hatred content hosted in the UK".

I'm not sure what an arty album cover of an admittedly naked girl has got to do with this as clearly it does not relate to child sexual abuse or what this has got to do with Amazon, which sells CDs and DVDs and last I checked in is not in the kids porn business.

That it can even consider such a move without any kind of consultation suggests to me we have a serious problem with over zealous censors that needs to be tackled tout suite.

I haven't done my Christmas shopping yet and I plan to use Amazon. I will not be buying any German metal (even though the offending cover has been replaced with a picture of the hairy rockers themselves).

What is most concerning about this issue is that an apparent piece of art has sparked such a unilateral response suggesting a complete lack of judgement on the part of the IWF.

This organisation needs to be reined in quickly before it does any serious harm.

Has the IWF gone too far? Vote *now* in our poll

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Daily Mail and BBC Local conspiracy theory

It isn't like the Daily Mail needs an excuse to bash the BBC, but was there more at play in the recent "Sachsgate" affair than meets the eye? And did it cost the corporation its much vaunted BBC Local web service?

It was on Popbitch today, but it is I think worth repeating in more detail. The Daily Mail hit the BBC hard over the scandal that saw Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand leaving a regrettable message on the answer phone of the 'Fawlty Towers' actor relating to his grand daughter Georgina Baillie.

In end the Daily Mail managed to get as many as 20,000 people to complain about the Radio 2 prank that went awry.  It ran a number of stories, cried foul about falling public standards and called for heads to roll. It scored an equally regrettable victory over the BBC claiming a number of scalps including Radio 2 controller Lesley Douglas as well, cost Brand his job at the station and led to Ross being suspended from his chat show.

At the same time as that was going on the BBC Trust was also making up its mind before going on to reject the corporation's plan to invest up to £68m in a web-based local video service across the UK. Apparently the service, which would have employed 400, was of a very high standard with many saying how how good it was.

However, the Trust said it would not improve services enough "to justify either the investment of licence fee funds or the negative impact on commercial media".

The Trust reached its decision after conducting a public value test and regional newspaper groups were some of the biggest critics of the proposed service as they were afraid of being blown out of the water by the BBC leading to a loss of staff and revenues.

The Daily Mail and General Trust, which owns the Daily Mail is also a major UK publisher of regional newspapers via its Northcliffe Media subsidiary, which is behind such titles as Nottingham Post, Bristol Evening Post and the Leicester Mercury. Northcliffe is already struggling and DMGT recently announced "significant" cuts at Northcliffe Media as revenues at the regional outfit tumbled 28% year on year in October.

So did the Daily Mail go for broke on Sachsgate knowing that it would hurt the BBC when it came to a decision on BBC Local?

Or is that simply too much of a reach? Maybe it was just as the Trust put it and that BBC Local could not justify either the investment of licence fee funds or the negative impact on commercial rivals and nothing else, but hey everyone loves a good conspiracy story.

It's worth noting what is happening to local media. It is being hit hard. ITV is cutting regional output and regional newspapers are cutting staff left, right and centre. BBC Local could have been the best thing that happened to local news services in years.

GroupM revises web ad revenue down sharply in 2009

WPP's GroupM has reduced its forecast for headline UK internet ad growth dramatically from 20% to 4% for 2009. That's huge almost too huge.

It does temper this by saying that some of the fall is due to a maturing internet market and not all is downturn related, but still. The radical predictions for next year compare to 27% in its May forecast to 22% in 2008.

The report says that demand for paid search and online display is still good, but paid search growth has been slowing markedly across 2008 and display is subject to price deflation as more activity becomes cost-per-action or 'performance'-based. That's as it should be, CPA and CPP are how things should be done.

Better news GroupM says is that premium display inventory, which includes pre-roll, high-quality publishers and portals; cost-per-thousand-based rather than cost-per-action, remains in strong health, but advertiser arbitrage between per-thousand and per-action chains their respective pricing.

Premium display is typically used by larger brand advertisers, which means they are maintaining high profile usage campaigns and not cutting back online as some other reports have suggested.

GroupM does not see any sudden recovery (saying only it remains possible) because it says consumer retrenchment is simply too deep to make this likely in 2009.

However, like Sir Martin Sorrell (I recently blogged about how he expected a bounce back sooner, rather than later), GroupM does see some conditions are already improving. It points to the monetary and fiscal taps are at least open (by the US government and its $700bn bailout plan), even if the flow is sluggish.

Overall online and offline, GroupM suggests that only the US is likely to shed more ad dollars than the UK, which is going to be hard hit (as if we haven't already seen this in the tsunami of media job cuts).

"This has been a classic, hard-to-predict 'trend reversal' from our own springtime hopes of 3% UK media growth next year, with sentiment falling fastest alongside the grim September/October newsflow. Every medium is affected, and indeed nearly every country including the fast-growing BRIC/Next 11 as our forthcoming global forecast will show."

New Yorker publishes second "outrageous" Obama cover

Having depicted Barack Obama and his wife Michelle as terrorists back in July the New Yorker has done it again with another cover that is less innocent than it looks.

To you or I it might look like the New Yorker is, somewhat after the fact, lampooning Obama's the first press conference after the US presidential election when he was questioned in all seriousness by journalists about what kind of dog he would be owning when in the White House. All presidents have to have dogs. I think it has something to do with those Rose Garden photo opportunities.

In all seriousness he told reporters: "We have two criteria that need to be reconciled. One is that Malia is allergic, so it has to be hypoallergenic. But obviously, a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me," said Obama, "So whether we're going to be able to balance those two thing, I think, is a pressing issue on the Obama household."

If you haven't seen it, it's worth a look.





But at least one blogger has decoded this mutt of a cover by the same artist Barry Blitt, who did Obama and AK-47 carrying Michelle Barack, and revealed what is hidden beneath. Life isn't all about cute dogs apparently. Huh.

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Battlestar Galactica goes constructivist with recruitment posters

The final half season of Battlestar Galactica is going to air on Sky1 in the new year and they've produced these promotional posters done in the style of Soviet Constructivism of the 1930s.

I think they're very cool and am almost tempted to buy them as the five set posters are on sale at Amazon.com for $29.95. Okay, I won't as clearly that would be too geeky for words, but I am stupidly excited by imminent'ish arrival of this televisual event that will bring a conclusion to one of the best bits of TV in recent years.

There are lots of spoilers around here and there for the final episodes (but don't click unless you want to ruin the it all - you've been warned) after makers the Sci-Fi Channel split the final series in half having aired the first ten episodes in the first part of this year. All those months to wait to find out how it ends.

There are  lots of spoilers out there giving away details of who the final Cylon model is and what happens to the rag tag fleet having reached earth and found it a nuclear wasteland. 

If you haven't already seen it here's the trailer for Battlestar Galactica 4.5.

Daily Mirror as a free sheet?

Piers Morgan has a plan for the survival of the Daily Mirror: make it a freesheet.

Writing in the British Journalism Review Morgan says that every national newspaper will be free within 10 years and that the Daily Mirror should be the first.

Sounds radical doesn't it? But with the Daily Mirror's sales continuing to steadily fall away (1.42m in October down 1.48% for the month) it could happen.

Former Mirror editor Morgan argues that Trinity Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey needs to make the radical decision before The Sun beats it to the punch.

"I would make the Daily Mirror free tomorrow, because I don't see any future for it otherwise. If The Sun were to go free tomorrow it would kill the Mirror. It's a horrific position to be in and I'm sure that if Sly Bailey could find a buyer at the right price she'd sell the national titles like a shot."

I'm pretty sure that Bailey has more than a little time to play with. 1.42m is still a big pile of newspapers and the Sun won't be going free any time soon.

It seems likely if any paper will be first to go free it will be the Evening Standard, which continues to face a costly battle against the London freesheet newspapers.

The Evening Standard's circulation might have jumped above 300,000 for the first time in four months in October, but bulks make up more than 40% of its circulation.

Just how much longer can Associated continue to poor money into producing two London evening newspapers? It has already shed staff and stories are shared with London Lite as it battles News International's Thelondonpaper.

As media jobs are cut left right and centre, advertising dries up, it seems highly unlikely that London can continue to sustain three evening newspapers.

I'm convinced that the next seismic shift in British newspapers will come in that market (unless the Independent suddenly gets sold by Independent News & Media to the Daily Mail & General Trust).

Hat tip Press Gazette

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Sorrell: bounce back sooner than you think

Writing in The Times today Sir Martin Sorrell makes his case for the economic bounce back coming sooner than other think (2009 he says) although the piece could have benefited from last minute editing regards India.

The WPP chief executive plumps for 2009 as opposed to others saying 2010 or even 2011. He says sooner because "the market is missing the extent of the fiscal stimulus that the Obama administration is expected to announce. It will be colossal – the number $500bn has started to appear in the past few days – although, for it to work, people must act together and not independently".

Looking at the emerging four Bric economies – Brazil, Russia, India and China – he says India will do best next year.

The piece was clearly written before the Mumbai terror attacks and it is difficult to tell what impact they will have on business and investment the in Indian economy as people get nervous.

The case for these Bric economies, however, is undoubtedly strong as an indebted Europe, UK and US falters leaving the way open for the four to emerge.

WPP has long invested in the emerging markets and pegged future growth prospects to them.

In the article he compares Western Europe to "an ageing company with huge healthcare and pension liabilities that are difficult to fund" and because of this he says for WPP "there is no point in continuing to invest in Western Europe unless structural changes are made".

"For example, if we win a piece of business, we have to bear the severance costs of the company that lost the contract."


His gloomy view of the UK and Europe chimes with comments he made last week when he said there would be job cuts in its more mature markets in 2009 coupled with investment in emerging countries.

Sorrell said then that WPP would invest in emerging countries such as India, China or Brazil next year, in which WPP is strong and that promise growth, while cutting elsewhere.

"We will have to invest in those markets and take out head count in more mature markets. The key thing for us is to balance revenue and cost growth in terms of headcount."

In The Times today he also says that the ailing West needs Turkey inside the EU. He says entry should be a no brainer.

"It is the gateway to the Middle East, has a young population, is highly entrepreneurial and would be a huge boost to the EU's 450 million people."

As always, Sorrell has faith in America and recalls that while people wrote off the US in the 1980s and said that Japan would take over along came Ronald Reagan and shook it all up.

"He changed the dynamics. What the world really needs right now is leadership in the Reaganite, Thatcherite, Blairite mould to lead us out of this crisis."

He also wonders like everyone else if Obama could be the man to lead the change.

"Mr Obama could be that person. I look at Barack Obama and it takes me back to when I was 18, to when John F. Kennedy was elected. Mr Obama is young, smart, a wonderful orator and represents a new hope, a new era. JFK was just the same and he changed the attitudes of my generation. That’s what the world needs now from Mr Obama."

Twitter at the centre of UGC in Mumbai attacks

Twitter has been highly prevalent in the citizen journalism reports about what has been going on in the terror chaos in Mumbai with reports saying at one time the Indian government wanted people to stop Twittering.

Indian blogger Gauravonomics is saying that Twitter has been one of the best sources for real-time citizen journalism news on the Mumbai terrorist attacks.

Various sources were also reporting that at the height of the terror attacks the Indian government asked for all live Twitter updates from the scene to cease immediately. It was concerned that terrorists were using the updates to keep abreast of the news. Scary thought that terrorists are also early adopters.

A tweet was sent and reposted across Twitter saying: "ALL LIVE UPDATES - PLEASE STOP TWEETING about #Mumbai police and military operations".

Seems fair enough although you might have wanted to stop broadcast media pointing their cameras and updating their websites. If terrorists were monitoring Twitter, they were no doubt looking at news sites to get intelligence on Indian military movements.

The Indian blogosphre has also been highly active and Flickr has too has seen a lot of activity as citizen journalists snapped shots and posted them online.

The Guardian was also reporting on the use of Google Maps page and Wikipedia page and how quickly they were set up.


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The end of print for The Independent?

It happened recently in the US, but could it happen here? Roy Greenslade writes today about his kill or cure plan for the Independent -- kill off the print version and carry on as a digital paper.

As the Independent prepares for a round of 90 editorial job cuts he argues in his Evening Standard column today that Independent News & Media must bite the bullet and stop spending a small fortune every year (around £12m) publishing the Independent as a newspaper.

He suggests the radical plan for the paper's survival in the week that Roger Alton, editor of The Independent, said he feels a "terrible personal failure" for the newspaper's struggling performance but has ruled out a sale in the immediate future.

The personal failure is not his alone. Well before he arrived after his high achieving stint at the Observer the Independent was listing like a ship in a breakers yard. Sales of the paper fell 16.29% year on year in October to an average circulation of just 201,019 copies.

The paper has been in decline for some time and increasing the cover price to £1 in this market seems like madness. It certainly struck Alton as such. He saw fit to attack it in a Sky News interview earlier this week.

What lies ahead, says Greenslade, is a "real chance to lead the digital revolution towards its next, inevitable phase", which is slowly winding its way towards us and claiming victims as it goes.

Just look at the Christian Science Monitor in the US as an example. That venerable paper, that once sold as much as the Independent, is preparing to cease publication and go online only (with a weekly magazine in support).

And look to Rupert Murdoch's recent comments on The Future of Newspapers where he said "that newspapers will reach new heights in the 21st century" but that these would be digital ones.

He said the real business of newspaper owners "isn't printing on dead trees" and that newspapers themselves are not the medium, but rather the qualities that good newspaper businesses embody -- great journalism and judgment.

Back to the Independent, Greenslade makes a solid argument and it is one that everyone knows well by now. Closing a failing paper (or a magazine for that matter) will "save trees, save ink, production and distribution costs. There is marketing as well, of course, and in doing it, as Greenslade says, "the paper will take a giant step into the digital age".

It is that first step that is the hardest as it will be Sir Tony O'Reilly admitting defeat. He clearly holds the paper quite dear. It has been said before that it is his calling card. British national newspapers are a generally impressive affair and much admired. He would lose that, but he too must face up to reality. To the new reality even.

As part of that new reality is the esteem in which some news and blog sites are now held in. Look at the recent US Presidential. It was in a large part a digital election and proved a bonanza for respected political websites such as The Huffington Post, Slate and The Page.

So yes there is much merit in what he suggests. The only fly in the digital ointment is the same fly that exits in the printed world. The Independent is bottom of the pile and that is even more true in the digitally world.

In the recent electronic ABCs The Independent.co.uk reported a rise in unique users, climbing 5% to 8.4m. The Guardian, market leader here, increased its users by 7.4% month on month to a record of almost 26m.

The Guardian soars online, but revenues are still elusive and becoming more so in times like these. What would that mean for an electronic only Independent? One imagines that the digital product would have less staff than the paper one (although this assumption may be incorrect). It would still struggle in the face of its rivals far behind the Guardian and fourth placed Times Online for that matter that recorded 20.5m uniques.

We also have no clear idea what would happen to the Independent's site online should it lose its number one promotional tool -- the newspaper itself.

What impact would the loss of the paper product have on those 8.5m uniques? Big question and no answer close to hand. IN&M have apparently looked at this scenario and ruled it out because of the huge loss of ad revenues and estimated the gap between print revenue and online-only revenue would be as large as £30m a year after all the cost savings.

But as the paper continues to lose ad revenue offline and readers the gap is not going to stay that way. There will be additional online revenues as well to squeeze that gap closer.

It would be a leap in the dark, but my feeling as well is that sooner rather than later we will know the answer to that question as some takes a leap into the unknown. Will the Independent last another year? It has to be worth a bet.

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